Education and raising awareness have been at the heart of the work of the Arolsen Archives over the past year. Our new education platform “arolsen school” a multimedia, interactive tool that helps young people to engage with the history of Nazism saw use in many classrooms in 2024. And our crowdsourcing initiative #everynamecounts had another successful year, with tens of thousands of volunteers helping us to preserve the memory of victims of Nazi persecution. The high volume of inquiries submitted to our Tracing Service and record numbers of users visiting our online archive show that interest in the history of Nazi persecution remains strong.
Our mission is to present the history of Nazi persecution in a way that is understandable and meaningful for people today. The documents in our collection tell the stories of millions of victims of Nazi persecution. When young people learn about their lives and experiences, it makes them stop and think – and they often gain insights they can apply to their own lives in the process. That’s why we’re always looking for new ways for people to access and relate to the information in our archive.
Floriane Azoulay, Director of the Arolsen Archives
High Inquiry Numbers and Hundreds of Thousands of Online Searches
The number of inquiries has continued to rise in recent years as more and more people get to know the Arolsen Archives and start to search for traces of their relatives – this increased interest spans generations. Even now, 80 years after the end of the war, the information held in our archives is vitally important. It helps people understand Nazi persecution, reconstruct life stories, and fill the gaps in their family histories. Remembrance remains both highly personal and hugely relevant.
The Online Archive: A Key Source of Information
The online archive of the Arolsen Archives allows people to conduct their own research – a service now used by thousands of people every day. It currently provides access to 40 million documents. And thanks to partnerships with other archives, we are expanding our digital collection all the time. Our website also proved more popular than ever before, with over 580,000 visitors in 2024. All in all, over 1.4 million users accessed the online resources of the Arolsen Archives last year.
searches were conducted in the online archive in 2024
The number of family members sending us inquiries remains high. At the same time, we also see a wider audience showing greater interest in engaging with victims’ stories – nearly 10% of inquiries now come from people who are not researching for personal or professional reasons, but simply have a general interest in the history of Nazi persecution or in the fate of specific individuals.
Retracing His Grandfather’s Steps
In April 2024, Péter Füzi traveled from Budapest to Ohrdruf in Thuringia. Accompanied by staff from the Arolsen Archives and the Friedenstein Foundation Gotha, he visited the site where the Ohrdruf concentration camp used to stand. This is where the National Socialists had sent his grandfather Benedek Sátori. Péter had only found out about Benedek’s persecution and his probable place of death after submitting an inquiry to the Arolsen Archives the year before. He also spoke to pupils at a nearby secondary school in Ohrdruf while he was there.
Archives Serve a Diverse Audience
Literary Research at the Arolsen Archives
In 2024, two highly acclaimed books came out in Germany that were based in part on research conducted at the Arolsen Archives. Gaëlle Nohant’s novel “All die gestohlenen Erinnerungen” (All the Stolen Memories) was originally published in French in 2023. Written in close consultation with our tracing team, the book tells the story of Irène, an archivist who works at the Arolsen Archives and clarifies family fates through her research. The novel was awarded the prestigious French literary prize Grand Prix RTL-Lire in the spring of 2024. It was followed…
… in August 2024, by “Gebt mir etwas Zeit” (Give Me Some Time), a memoir written by well-known German comedian and author Hape Kerkeling. In this bestseller about his life, Kerkeling explores his family’s turbulent history. He did some of the research for this book at the Arolsen Archives, where he uncovered new information about the persecution suffered by his grandfather, who was classified as a communist by the Nazis and sent to Buchenwald concentration camp. Kerkeling expressed his appreciation for the work of the Arolsen Archives in the acknowledgements that preface his book.
Workshop for Professional Users
Twenty representatives from various institutions in the USA, Israel, Austria, Germany, and Poland visited the Arolsen Archives in June 2024 to attend our international user workshop. As well as gaining insights into new collections and new opportunities for research, they also discussed the use of artificial intelligence and OCR (optical character recognition) and received a briefing on plans to switch to a new database. Other topics covered during the workshop included data protection, support for archives in Ukraine, and document acquisition.
User Services – In-Person and Online
The international EHRI-Seminar “Citizen Science in Archive Work” was another event that brought participants from all over Europe to the Arolsen Archives. The focus here was on the practical implementation of crowdsourcing projects for micro-archives, with the Arolsen Archives sharing their experience with #everynamecounts. Presentations on data processing, community management, geospatial data, and a special focus on micro-archives in Ukraine rounded off the seminar. The Arolsen Archives also expanded their online services in 2024 – the virtual user service is one example – and carried out a number of online training courses aimed at various audiences, including sessions for staff at memorial sites.
134
people carried out research on site in the reading room
84
new users were given remote access to the database over an extended period to work on specific research projects
German Bundestag Organizes Youth Encounter
Seventy Young People Visit the Archive
Every year, the German Bundestag organizes a Youth Encounter to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day. Around 70 young people visited the Arolsen Archives on January 29, 2024. As well as enjoying a guided tour with a focus on Bad Arolsen’s history, they learned about the work of the tracing team, gained an insight into a special collection of personal belongings confiscated from concentration camp prisoners, and found out about our projects and educational resources. This included a sneak peek at the new educational tool “arolsen school” ahead of its launch.
Tracing – A Heartfelt Mission
Behind every inquiry is a personal fate, a family history, a human tragedy you can often only begin to understand. Owing to the personal contact I had with the families, I experienced many emotional moments which I will never forget. For me, this work was a life-long mission that didn’t end when I left the office at the end of the day.
Nathalie Letierce-Liebig, former Arolsen Archives staff member
Many of the staff at the Arolsen Archives have been involved in tracing families for decades and have engaged with fate of countless individuals along the way. Nathalie Letierce-Liebig (2nd from right in the photo) is one of them. Born in France, she spent 40 years working at the Arolsen Archives before retiring in 2024. We sat down with Nathalie to reflect on her moving work at the Arolsen Archives – you can read the whole interview here.
Makeover for Permanent Exhibition
New Concept and Renovation
Working in close collaboration with an agency that specializes in presenting important social issues, a project team started work on revamping the permanent exhibition on the history of the Arolsen Archives in the final weeks of 2024. The team not only developed a new concept and a new design, but also rolled up their sleeves and got to work themselves – leveling the shelves of historical archive boxes that line the rear wall of the exhibition, for example. They spent two days working hard to remove more than 4,700 card index boxes – and then put them back again.
New Processes and Technologies in the Archive
Knowledge Network on Nazi Persecution
As part of their work to prepare for a digital future, the Arolsen Archives have been developing and testing a prototype knowledge graph since 2024. These systems structure and link data from various sources to form an intelligent network. In combination with an AI-based language model, this technology could significantly advance research into victims of Nazi persecution. All the knowledge and data on a specific person or path of persecution – including information from other institutions – would be available at a glance. If this process of development continues, it could become easy for the online archive to answer questions like “How many people were deported from Berlin to Auschwitz in March 1943?”
“Clustering” Documents with AI
The process of “clustering” documents is an important step toward the creation of an intuitive online archive. In order to gather all the information on a specific topic or person and make it easy for users to carry out research, the archive team must first group huge mixed collections of documents together into different types. In 2024, staff tested an AI application that identifies documents, segments them, and assigns them to the appropriate document types. This AI application can even process microfilm images that were produced in Soviet archives 30 years ago. Capable of recognizing them as documents, it can correctly match the front and the back together.
Modern Archive System and New Tool for Tracing Unit
The Arolsen Archives are introducing a new archive information system to digitize, standardize, and protect all the processes in the archive while consolidating them at the same time. The core components of the archive had already been integrated into the new system by the end of 2024. Implementation should be completed by the end of 2025. Our tracing teams have also been busy preparing for a new tool over the past year. Starting in June 2025, they will be using a modern CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system to process inquiries.
Hybrid Scanning Protects Documents
A hybrid scanning station that went into operation in 2024 produces consistently high-quality results when digitizing original documents. The system combines non-contact scanning technologies with point laser scanning, capturing every detail very precisely while avoiding physical stress to the fragile paper – an ideal solution for preserving valuable historical originals. Hybrid systems can efficiently digitize both single sheets and bound books, making it easier to process large quantities of documents.
In addition, the Arolsen Archives are now using a new ISO standard to ensure that digitized copies meet especially high image quality requirements. This new standard lays down clear guidelines for text legibility, image and graphics clarity, and color representation. Digitized copies that are standardized in this way make it easier to carry out research online. They are also ideally suited for automated text recognition and AI-assisted analysis.
Many New Documents Added to the e-Guide
The e-Guide is an important tool when it comes to understanding and interpreting many of the collections in the archive. It provides simple, interactive explanatory information on the context of the “individual documents” – these are mostly index cards and forms that contain information about individual victims of Nazi persecution. Clocking up over 154,000 visits in 2024, usage of the e-Guide doubled compared to 2022. Many new explanatory notes were also added last year, the focus being on documents on displaced persons. Plans are now in the pipeline for further additions, including notes on the various card files kept by the Secret State Police (Gestapo).
Preserving the Originals
Extensive Restoration Efforts
For decades, the original documents in the archive were indispensable tools that staff used to help them search for missing persons and document paths of persecution. Daily use took its toll. With funding from the BKM special program for the preservation of written cultural heritage, we are safeguarding these valuable originals for future generations. In 2024, restoration work focused on a collection that was created by the Allies after the war and contains thousands of lists detailing deported victims of Nazi persecution in the former Soviet occupation zone.
After an elaborate process of de-acidification and restoration – the paper was treated with alkaline substances, tears were repaired, holes were patched, and adhesive residues were removed – the lists were restored to a good condition and…
… packed in suitable archive boxes to protect them from further deterioration.
26,000
documents had been treated by the end of 2024
346,000
correspondence files were packed in archive boxes in 2024. These files often contain original letters from survivors or from the relatives of those who were murdered.
New Archive Building in Bad Arolsen
Plans Move Forward
A modern façade with red-colored prefabricated concrete elements reminiscent of cartons and archive boxes – this is a striking feature of the design by Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos that came second in the architectural competition held in the fall of 2023. However, their concept finally prevailed after the expert evaluation carried out within the subsequent EU tender procedure. The new archive building will be located next to the existing office building in the center of Bad Arolsen.
Technical Planning Underway
The project entered the planning phase in the fall of 2024 with the commissioning of the Spanish-German architecture firm Nieto Sobejano. Their architects visited the archive for a comprehensive briefing on the collections before starting to work on detailed plans for the new building. The building will not only protect the documents and preserve them for future generations, but will also present them to the outside world as a part of our global documentary heritage recognized by UNESCO.
Continue with chapter #2
Annual Report 2024: Projects and Campaigns